High-Level Chess: What Happens to the Human Mind When You Study While Extremely High on THC?

What happens when a human being—under the influence of significant amounts of THC—studies or competes in the game of chess at a serious level?

This isn’t about jokes. This is about pressure-forged cognition, applied mental training, and exploring how altered states of consciousness might affect intelligence, pattern recognition, memory, and focus—particularly in the domains of:

Aggressive Opening Theory (e.g. Muzio Gambit, King’s Gambit Accepted)

Middlegame Tactics (e.g. forced three-move knight forks and combinations from grandmaster play)

Endgame Precision (deep calculation under an altered mental state)

We draw inspiration from real pedagogy (e.g. weighted training in physics and sport), the mental flexibility of psychoanalytic theory, and modern debates around cognitive enhancement.

Is this madness? Or a future form of competitive training?

Presented in a tone somewhere between the faculty lounge and the basement dojo, this monologue sets the stage for an ongoing experiment. What happens to the mind when you get as high as Tommy Chong at 4:19 PM on 4/20 and still force yourself to perform at the top of your cognitive game?

Tune in for a serious but entertaining look into the potential cognitive effects of chess under THC.